


say my name and everything just stops

by basha



Category: Charlie's Angels (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, F/F, Getting Back Together, Getting Together, OT3, Possessive Behavior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:40:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24152959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basha/pseuds/basha
Summary: (This is a fairytale.) Jane, Sabina, and Elena grow up together at Angelwood Academy, where they are trained to be 'lady spies.' (There is a happy ending. At least, there probably is.)
Relationships: Elena Houghlin/Jane Kano/Sabina Wilson, Elena Houghlin/Sabina Wilson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 57





	say my name and everything just stops

**Author's Note:**

> I went through so many drafts of this, and I'm not completely satisfied, but I hope you like it! I wanted to do a slightly darker take, and I thought this fandom could use more AUs. 
> 
> Enjoy!

_ prologue.  _

Special Agent Jane Kano arrives back at her apartment and knows instantly that something is wrong. Nothing is obviously amiss, but Jane’s instincts are unparalleled and every single one of them is screaming at her

Locking the door behind her and drawing the knife out of her thigh holster, she moves quickly but cautiously through the apartment; anyone inside would have heard her come in, so her aim is to overpower, not to surprise. The living room, kitchen, and bathroom are all clear, which leaves only her bedroom to be searched. She squares her shoulders, takes a deep breath, and kicks open the door. 

Elena Houghlin—childhood friend, ex-lover, internationally wanted criminal—looks up at her with red rimmed eyes. She’s sitting on Jane’s bed, eating Jane’s ice cream right out of the carton. Even distraught and unwelcome, she is beautiful. 

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Elena says, voice raw. “They have Sabina.” 

  
  


_ interlude i. on this story _

This is a fairytale. There are good guys and bad guys and some people somewhere in the middle. There is a princess and her knight, a heroine and dark forces for her to foil. 

There is also a school. It is a school for girls who don’t belong anywhere else, the troublemakers, the wards of state, the heiresses to fallen thrones. All of the girls are special: smart and strong and hungry. The school takes in these girls and loves them like no one else has. It teaches them, trains them, shapes them; it makes them better, stronger, more powerful. And then, when the girls are all grown, the school offers them a choice: they can turn their back on the school and everything it stood for, or they can come back and help take over the whole fucking world. 

This school is where our heroines first meet. This school is where they first fall in love. This school is why a wall of thorns starts to grow between them. 

But this is a fairytale, so have no fear. The course of true love never runs smooth, but there’s a happy ending. At least, there probably is. 

  
  


_ part i. childhood friends _

“Hey, check it out,” Sabina says, nudging her best friend. “New girl.” The words roll like a butterscotch candy over her tongue. Jane looks up from the cypher in her lap to squint into the sunlight. Sabina’s not fucking with her; there really is a new girl, nervous and not yet in uniform, stepping out of a black car at the front gates to shake hands with the headmistress. And, because Sabina and Jane are the only ones brave enough to face the winter cold during their free period, they get the first chance at a claim. 

The new girl’s name is Elena. She’s taller than Sabina but smaller than Jane, well dressed, pretty. She doesn’t say much when Sabina and Jane decide to join her to hear the headmistress’ welcoming spiel, but her eyes are calm and cool as she looks them over. At the end of her speech, the headmistress asks if she has any questions. 

“Yes,” the girl says, voice sweet and level. “Where’s your library, and how many books can you take out at a time?” 

On their way to show Elena to her new dormitory, Jane ducks into the front office while Sabina distracts Elena and the headmistress with a recital of the school’s fight song. When Jane comes back out, Elena has been assigned to be their third roommate. The headmistress raises an eyebrow, but says nothing. At Angelwood Academy, initiative is rewarded.

*

Elena adapts quicker to the change in her schooling than she anticipated. To be fair, there’s not so much different in going to a school for future lady spies versus a school for future royalty. There’s a surprising amount of overlap between classes on courtroom etiquette and ballroom dancing and classes in espionage and hand-to-hand combat. She thinks she should feel sad that her older half-brother was deposed, but she isn’t. He was a tyrant, and she was never fit for the life of a princess. 

She is, apparently, quite fit for a life at Angelwood. The teachers here encourage everything her old teachers wanted her to suppress, from her interest in coding to her interest in girls. She excels in her classes, catching up to and surpassing the other girls in her year in everything from hacking to forgery to krav-maga. 

It helps that she has Sabina and Jane. They’re a funny duo—Sabina is tiny while Jane is tall, Sabina is a troublemaker while Jane follows every rule—but they make sense together, and they make sense with her. They protect her from the other girls, teach her the ropes at school, sneak across their shared room from their bunk-bed to her bottom bunk to hold her when she has nightmares. And they make her laugh. 

She finds herself, for the first time in her life, genuinely happy. The thought occurs to her at random times: while working with them to crack a code for class or while studying with them at their table in the library or even just sitting in their room and messing with Sabina’s Magic 8 Ball. 

“Are we going to be the greatest team of ‘lady spies’ this world has ever seen?” Sabina asks, shaking the toy violently. It’s somewhere around the first anniversary of Elena’s arrival at Angelwood. Sabina is lying with her head in Elena’s lap; Jane is sitting on the bed right behind Elena, braiding her hair into some sort of complicated knot. The Magic 8 ball swirls, then settles, and Sabina lifts it higher to see the results. “Ask again later?” She reads. “That’s bullshit.” Sabina starts shaking the ball again, but Elena snatches it away. 

“You’re asking the wrong questions,” she says. She looks down at the ball. “Will Jane, Sabina, and I be best friends forever?” She shakes the ball gently, a few times, but before she can read the result, Jane leans over her and plucks it out of her hands. 

“You’re both stupid,” Jane says authoritatively. “You don’t need that stupid toy.” She tugs gently at a strand of Elena’s hair. “Of course we’ll be friends forever. Sabina and I decided that when you got here. It’s not our fault you didn’t understand.” Elena smiles, reaching up to gently touch the two charms dangling from the front of her necklace, the physical mark of the claim her two best friends made on her almost a year ago. Anywhere else it would be insulting. At Angelwood, it’s an honor. 

Elena allows herself to bask in the unadulterated joy of being with her two best friends, pushing down any of the other, more complicated feelings she’s begun to have for Sabina and Jane. She focuses on Jane’s words. She knows they’re just that--words--and that they’re too young to predict their future, but she feels in her heart that Jane’s words are a promise. A prophecy. 

If she says they’ll be friends forever, then they will be.

*

In their last year at Angelwood, all three of them are beset with the typical last year restlessness, and Elena has her first kiss. 

The first part is perhaps more notable, as it lasts almost all of the year, while the kiss lasts only a minute. But the restlessness was routine, it had passed through every graduate of Angelwood and would be passed on to every girl to come. It is only to be expected. The kiss is unexpected, and therefore all the more pivotal.

Her name is Imogen. She’s a very pretty girl with honey brown hair and good eyebrows, and she’s a natural at everything underhanded and sneaky. The teachers love her, and they pair her with Elena in any classes that require partnerships. Sabina and Jane, for reasons Sabina considers fairly obvious, don’t like her very much. Elena doesn’t seem to understand. 

Still, Sabina doesn’t pay it much thought. Imogen has nothing on her and Jane. One day soon, this maddening, intoxicating, wonderful pining period is going to draw to a close, and she and Elena and Jane will become the perfect power throuple and take the world by storm. Sabina imagines they’re all waiting for the same thing, for graduation, for the apartment they’ve all planned to share. 

Then Elena decides to take Imogen to prom. 

Except for the dresses, prom at Angelwood Academy was as different from prom at most schools as day is to night. Instead of a dance, it’s a race; all of the graduating class competes in pairs to solve clues and avoid obstacles for the final prize of two crowns hidden and protected somewhere on school grounds. Sabina and Jane have been pledged to go to prom together since they were little, and they’ve been secretly petitioning the headmistress to let them have a three person team. Then Elena goes and invites Imogen and breaks their hearts. 

Worse, Elena has the nerve to act like the scorned party, cutting wounded glances at them whenever they talk about their prom plans in front of her and shutting out anyone who tries to talk to her, even Imogen. 

“It’ll be okay,” Jane soothes. They’re studying in the library together, just the two of them for the first time in years, but they’re not getting very much work done. Instead, Jane is holding her hand, running her thumb over the back, and speaking softly, soothing the ocean of emotions churning in Sabina’s soul. 

Elena whispers something into Imogen's ear as all of the graduating class watches the clock in the main hall tick off the seconds until prom starts. Sabina cranes her head until she catches Elena’s eye and blows her a kiss, but Elena just glares, turning back to Imogen. 

“Don’t worry,” Jane tells her, sounding a bit worried herself. 

Prom is a thrilling whirlwind of code cracking and booby-trap avoiding, and with Sabina and Jane distracted by their emotions, Elena and Imogen take the crown with graceful ease. 

“That was some nice work, your highness,” Jane says, as both she and Sabina curtsy elaborately. Elena rolls her eyes and puts the first crown on Imogen’s head. 

“Yes, it was,” she agrees, but she’s looking at Imogen. Imogen must get it, because she blushes softly. She reaches up to settle Elena’s crown over her princess curls. 

“You too,” Imogen says, and then she cups Elena’s chin and pulls her in for a kiss. There are assorted cheers, jeers, and whistles from the audience of other girls that’s formed over the last several hours, but all Sabina can feel is shock and horror and betrayal.  _ She’s not yours,  _ she reminds herself.  _ She’s your friend, and you should be happy for her.  _ Still, something dark and possessive is roaring in her chest, and it doesn’t help that Elena breaks away from the kiss and looks right at her and Jane. 

“I’m going to go to bed,” Elena says, pressing a kiss to Imogen’s cheek. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She walks off without looking back, purposefully passing right next to Jane and Sabina. “You guys coming?” Sabina and Jane exchange a look, and then they’re moving in unison, running a little to regain their rightful places by Elena’s side. Jane opens the door for all of them, but Sabina’s the one who closes it behind them, pressing Elena up against it, hands on her waist. Jane grabs her shoulder, restraining, but Sabina sees something sweet and wonderful pass over Elena’s face and can’t quite bring herself to pull back yet. 

“Sabina, wait,” Jane instructs, and Sabina listens. Elena’s listening too, fixing her dark eyes devotedly onto Jane’s. “Elena. You and Imogen. Is it serious?” Elena shakes her head quickly. 

“It’s you,” she says. “It’s always been you. You guys seemed...I didn’t think…” She looks back and forth between Jane and Sabina, and everything clicks into place in Sabina’s head, terrible and wonderful at the same time. 

“You’re an idiot,” Sabina says happily. 

“I resent that,” Elena says, and then Sabina’s lips are pressed to hers. Jane fits her hands over Sabina’s on Elena’s hips and starts walking them backwards. Sabina breaks off the kiss to get her mouth on Elena’s neck, right above the chain of her necklace, doubling her claim. She looks up to find Jane and Elena kissing, which is one of the hottest things she’s ever seen, and then their dresses are hitting the floor and they stumble into Elena’s bed. Elena reaches up to remove her crown, and both Jane and Sabina react instantly, brushing off her hands.

“Leave it on,” Sabina says breathily, and then none of them are able to form a coherent sentence for a while. 

In the morning, Elena wakes up to find Sabina lying on her stomach next to her and Jane, carving all three of their initials into her bedpost. 

“You know this is my bed, right?” Elena asks, reaching out for Sabina. Sabina rolls closer. 

“So?” 

“You’re supposed to carve the names into  _ your  _ bedpost,” Elena explains. Sabina gives her her best "dumb blonde" look to make Elena smile that cute little smile she gets when she knows she’s being smarter than Sabina (which is often). “Never mind.” She yawns as Sabina kisses her shoulder. “I’m gonna go back to sleep for a little bit, kay?”

“Sure,” Sabina replies softly as Elena’s eyes flutter closed. “I’ll be here.” She wonders if it’s creepy to be watching her sleeping girlfriends like this, then gets distracted by the word girlfriend and squeals to herself happily, feeling fulfilled and safe and hopeful, ready for everything the future holds. 

_ interlude ii. on angels _

This is a fairytale, yes, but it’s also a story about Angels. 

The Angels are the graduates of Angelwood Academy who choose, after getting a brief taste of the “real” world, to come back. They are just girls, but they are also warriors, shaped by Angelwood itself to be birds of prey that can’t help but come home when the weather turns. They are girls who are ready to fulfill the great purpose they were brought up in service of. They are fearless, or at least they are much more afraid of what it would mean to turn their backs on the only home they’ve known. 

They are so young.

These Angels do incredible things on missions all around the world. They kill and kidnap, torture and steal, blackmail and extort. They do as they’re told. 

And they shape the course of history. 

_ part ii. ex-lovers _

For Sabina, living in the “real” world feels, ironically, surreal. She’s never been a normal member of society before, having been raised first by criminals and then by Angelwood. She’s one of a rare set of legacy students; her mother was an Angel, and it’s all she’s ever wanted to be. She’s already ready to go back. 

The upside, however, is that she gets to reunite with some family members back in London. They’re from her dad’s side, which means organized crime instead of the world shaping power that comes with her mom’s side. The stuff they do is mostly small potatoes, but it’s fun. She has a year of time to burn before becoming an Angel, and she’s happy to spend pulling jobs with her cousins. 

“It’s just like when I was a kid,” she reports back with a gleeful, childlike wonder, climbing into Jane’s lap. 

“I’m happy you’re happy, baby,” Jane says, but her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Sabina stares at her as subtly as possible. After the misunderstanding with Elena, she’s tried to pay more attention to what her girlfriends mean rather than what they say, and she’s not sure Jane is quite happy. Elena’s found a job at a lab during their gap year, and she’s happy as a pig in mud there, building hacking devices and espionage software. But Jane hasn’t found anything she wants to do yet. 

“You could come with me, next time?” Sabina proposes, fluttering her eyes. “You too, love,” she adds, looking up over Jane’s shoulder at Elena. Elena jumps over the back of the couch and snuggles next to them. 

“I think that’s a great idea,” Elena says. “You in, Janey?” 

“It’ll be good practice for life as Angels,” Sabina encourages. “Keep our skills sharp.” 

“I’m in,” Jane says, and Sabina kisses her before she can do anything stupid like take it back. 

The job, Sabina’s cousin Aly tells them, will be simple. It’s an in-and-out kind of gig; all they need to do is break into some barrister’s house and kill him. Compared to the stuff they’ll do as Angels, it’s child’s play. Aly says that she’ll be the lookout, and gives Sabina the honor of taking the shot, but Sabina passes the gun on to Jane. She winks at her girlfriend and tells her that she’s always been the better shot. It’s her bizarre way of flirting, and Jane takes it as such, blushing pink. 

They crouch above the barrister’s skylight, waiting for him to finish up his work. Elena sucks a hickey into Jane’s neck as they wait and everything is wonderful until a flashlight blinks on and off on the roof across the street, the agreed upon sign that the barrister’s turned off the lights in his home office and will be coming upstairs. Jane cocks the gun, but then she freezes. Sabina tracks her gaze to the sight of the barrister’s wife, in her nightie, waiting for him in the doorway to their bedroom and feels a hot flash of panic. 

“Now, Jane,” Elena hisses.

“Jane!” Sabina prompts. The barrister is right under them, time is running out. Jane doesn’t move, so Sabina elbows her, hard, wrenches the gun out of her loose grip and takes the shot herself, instantly, ruthlessly. The barrister falls in a pool of blood and shattered glass from the skylight. The woman he’s with screams, going down on her knees next to him. Jane’s completely off the grid by then, so Sabina and Elena have to push and pull and prod at her until she’s back in their apartment, drinking a glass of water at their kitchen counter. 

“Love?” Elena asks, cautiously, hovering beside Jane. “You with us, honey?” Sabina watches quietly from across the counter. She’s been told multiple times that she has a godawful bedside manner, so she keeps her mouth shut.

“I’m sorry,” Jane croaks. “I don’t know what that was.”

“It’s okay,” Elena soothes. “It is okay, isn’t it, Sabina?” 

“Yeah,” Sabina says quickly. “Yeah, of course.”

“You’re not mad?” Jane asks, reaching across to grab Sabina’s hand. “Really?” 

“Course not,” Sabina says. Jane peers into her eyes and Sabina lets her; she’s been trained to tell if someone’s lying so she’ll be able to tell with certainty that Sabina isn’t. 

“Okay,” Jane says. “Let’s go to bed.”

That night, Jane and Sabina lie awake on either side of Elena. Sabina bites the bullet and moves first, pushing up on one arm and reaching across her girlfriends for the glass of water on the bedside table. 

“Hey,” Jane whispers, and Sabina startles just the right amount to let Jane think she scared her. 

“Hi,” Sabina whispers back, dipping down for a kiss. Jane smiles into it, and everything feels absolutely fine, just for a minute. Then Jane pulls back, and Sabina knows they’re both thinking about the same thing. Sabina cuddles back into Elena’s side, collecting her thoughts. There are a few minutes of silence. Then, “He was a bad person, you know, Janey. He deserved everything he had coming to him.” 

“I know,” Jane whispers back. Sabina tells herself not to read into the waver her voice. She decides just to trust in her girlfriends and in their destiny. 

*

The card appears tucked into the paper bag with the blueberry muffin Jane orders every morning at her favorite coffee shop.  _ You’re not alone,  _ the card says.  _ Fallen angels order mochas every Wed at noon.  _ Jane finishes the muffin and wonders what it would be like to live a life where she doesn’t understand what those words mean. A life where they don’t echo endlessly through her mind. 

It starts four months before the card, in the very same coffee shop, with a phone. The phone is sitting at her favorite table one morning, locked and unclaimed. Jane sits for two hours longer than usual, waiting for the owner to come back. When it’s clear that they won’t, Jane takes matters into her own hands. She doesn’t mean to get so into it, but she finds herself constructing a rudimentary device to bypass the lock on the homescreen, searches the phone until she finds a name, and uses the name to find a home and work address. Then, once she’s realised there’s no legal way to explain how she sorted it all out, Jane decides to intercept the woman as she’s leaving her office and slip the phone into her purse, so it’s like the phone was never gone at all. 

That night, Jane plays and replays the happy look on the woman’s face when she finds her phone in her possession as Sabina tells them about the surveillance she was doing that day and Elena tells them about the hacking spyware she’s designing. She closes her eyes that night and thinks about how good it felt to use her skills from Angelwood again, but this time in the pursuit not of something good. Something meant to make someone happy. 

She turns it into a little hobby, finding lost things and returning them. She starts pursuing it further, looking for posters on streets and posts on the internet about missing things. She feels like an undercover PI; like a real angel, sort of, performing miracles. And with every day that passes, every lie she tells her girlfriends about what she did that day, Jane feels the vision of the future she’s held in her mind's eye for so long starts to wash away, like sidewalk chalk during a thunderstorm. 

So when she gets the card, she’s not really surprised. She doesn’t waste any time waffling over whether or not to go; she knows what she’s going to do. There are two women waiting for her at the coffee shop Wednesday at noon. She orders a blueberry muffin and a mocha, and her favorite barista teases her playfully about being late and changing her order.

“God,” she says. “It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.” Jane laughs because she kind of wants to cry. The barista hands over her order, and Jane looks around to see two women, one pale and blonde and the other black and bespectacled, waving at her. She looks around, checks that the shop is clear, and sits in the third chair at the women’s table. 

“I’m glad you decided to join us,” the blonde woman says. “I’m Bosley. This is my associate, Bosley.”

“You’re both--”

“Bosley, yes. It’s a rank in the organisation we work for. An organisation we think you would be perfect for too.” The second Bosley says, leaning forward slightly. Jane looks between the two women, tries to picture them twenty years younger, walking the halls of Angelwood Academy.

“And you’re both fallen Angels?” Jane asks, keeping her voice low. She can’t remember if she’s ever actually said the words out loud; choosing not to become an Angel has always been presented as perfectly valid by Angelwood staff, but the other girls had always made it out to be something shameful, damning. She wonders now if this is just another one of the school’s clever tricks. 

“We are,” the first Bosley says, “though that’s not exactly how we think of ourselves. We consider ourselves to be people given an awful lot of power who decided to use it for good instead of evil.”

“The Angels do good,” Jane argues, perhaps too quickly. “They protect us.” The Bosleys smile at each other. 

“That’s one way of looking at it.” Jane takes a sip of her coffee but tastes nothing. She wants to get up and run away, she needs to stay put. She’s never truly pictured her life after Angelwood without her ascension to Angel, but she can’t properly picture her life as one now. She needs a new picture. 

“What do you guys do?” She asks desperately. The first Bosley smiles.

“We work for the government,” she says. “We’re technically under our own agency, but we work alongside MI6. We stop bad people from doing bad things, but we do it legally, not secretly. And then we hand them over to a judge and let the scales of justice decide their fate.” Jane swallows. 

“I don’t want to kill anyone,” she says, finally speaking a truth she’s held inside of her ever since she was first brought to Angelwood Academy, a little girl still reeling from the murder of her mother. She doesn’t want to put anyone else through that. 

“So don’t,” the second Bosley says. “You could work in—fuck, I dunno—the art theft devision. Whatever. We’d find a place for you.” Both Bosleys look at her, and Jane sees they’re waiting for an answer. 

“I don’t know—”

“You don’t need to decide now,” the first Bosley says, though she sounds a little disappointed, handing her another card she’s pulled seemingly from the air. This one is imprinted with a phone number and an address. “Get in touch anytime if you decide to step into the light. And if not...well, then I hope we never cross paths again.” The Bosleys turn and leave without looking back. 

Jane sits there for a long time, letting the sharp corner of the card dig into the soft flesh of her thumb, and tries not to think of this as the moment that the future of her life hinges upon. 

She goes home and pretends everything is normal. In her mind, she counts the days until their gap year is over and she’ll have to say goodbye to the loves of her lives for good. 

*

Elena catches Jane before she slips out the night before they’re supposed to report back to Angelwood, catching her arm as she attempts to get out of bed in the dark of night. She leans over and turns on the lamp, trying not to revel in the caught look on Jane’s face. 

“Elena,” Jane says, but she has nowhere to go from there and falls silent. 

“I can’t believe you tried to drug us,” Elena hisses. “I can’t believe you didn’t even have the decency to say goodbye.”

“I’m sorry,” Jane says. Her shoulders slump and she looks so darn earnest; Elena tries for the very first time to imagine how hard this must be for her. The sympathy she feels is immediately beset upon by her vast rage. 

“We trusted you,” Elena retorts. She rests a hand on Sabina’s shoulder protectively. Sabina doesn’t stir. “Sabina trusted you.”

“You didn’t,” Jane points out, like it means anything. Elena scowls. 

“No,” she says. “I’ve been hurt by the people I love before.” They look at each other for a long time, shadows cast on their faces from the sparse light, years of love and trust and loyalty on the chopping block between them. Elena’s hand tightens on Sabina’s shoulders. “You didn’t even ask us if we wanted to come with you,” she adds, voice unexpectedly small, and she finds herself blinking back tears. “You didn’t even try.”

“I couldn’t,” Jane says, sounding just as sad. “I couldn’t make you choose, not like that. You’d be unhappy either way and you’d hate me forever. This way you can still hate me, but at least you can be happy. Together.” Elena chokes back a sob. 

“We were made to be Angels,” she says. “Angels together.” 

“I’m sorry,” Jane says, and Elena believes her, but it doesn’t make it any easier. She stops fighting after that, stops speaking at all, just curves protectively over Sabina as Jane retrieves her packed bag. Jane stops in the doorway and murmurs one final “I love you both.” Then she leaves. Elena hears the front door close softly and all she can think about is how she’s going to tell Sabina. 

They’ve both already quit their jobs already, so she lets Sabina sleep in. Sabina sleeps through till the afternoon, which makes sense, considering she drank the whole mug of tea Jane had drugged just because Jane had made it for her. Elena feels an ache in her chest at the thought, and she doesn’t leave Sabina’s side for a moment. When Sabina blinks awake, she’s immediately fully alert. It’s something she learned at Angelwood, a skill she’ll carry with it forever. Elena just hates that she’s waking to such a cruel reality. 

Elena follows her into the kitchen and pulls her into a deep kiss.

“Not that I didn’t enjoy that immensely,” Sabina says when they part, keeping her hands on Elena’s hips and her forehead resting against Elena’s. “But what was that all about?”

“Sabina,” Elena says. “You know I love you more than anything, right?” Sabina furrows her brow and steps back, but her reply is instant and easy. 

“Course.”

“Jane’s gone,” Elena says. “She’s not cut out to be an Angel.” Sabina bursts into laughter. Then, just as quickly, she stops, face falling into despair. Elena feels another rush of protectiveness for Sabina and anger at Jane; their girl feels everything so strongly, so physically, how can Jane bear to hurt her like this? 

“She’s fallen?” Sabina asks, voice tight. “She’s left us?”

“I’m sorry, baby,” Elena says. She reaches for Sabina but Sabina whirls around, stalking away so Elena can’t see her face. “Sabina—” Elena’s cut off by the sound of a scream of rage and the sound and visual of her girlfriend slamming her fist into a wall. Elena’s been trained for a lot of things but not for this, not for the last person who loves her in the whole world to lose her mind, so she screams too. At the sound of Elena screaming, Sabina stops, looking towards Elena and then collapsing like a puppet with her strings up. She falls to her knees, cradling her hurt hand in the other one. Elena sinks down to the ground next to her. “Baby?”

Sabina looks up at her with red rimmed eyes and opens her arms. Elena pitches into them, pulling herself into Sabina’s lap and hugging back with all of her strength. 

“We’re going to be okay,” she whispers. “I promise, baby, we’re going to be okay.” She buries her face in Sabina’s hair and they both have a good cry. Once they’ve cried themselves out, Elena helps Sabina to her feet using her good hand, and leads her into the bathroom so they can clean up the other. Elena does a quick examination as Sabina sits, sniffling, on the side of the bathtub; nothing is broken, so Elena cleans the split knuckles with rubbing alcohol and wraps them in clean gauze. Sabina watches her with a look of utter adoration, which morphs, quickly and unprompted, into a look of despair. She stands, clutching at the hem of Elena’s shirt. 

“Do you want this, Elena?” She asks desperately. “You were happy working in the lab, if you don’t want to go back...I have to, my mother...but if you don’t—”

“I want this,” Elena says firmly. “I want to be an Angel. And I want to be with you. I’m yours, Sabina Wilson.” She raises a hand to pluck purposefully at her necklace, the physical symbol of the claim Sabina put on her long ago. She makes a mental note to take off the other charm. Then she stops thinking about anything else but Sabina, whose teeth are biting at the junction where her shoulder meets her neck and whose hands are clutching, possessive. 

“Mine,” Sabina whispers. “You’re mine. And I’m yours.”

“Always, baby,” Elena says, pressing a kiss to Sabina’s covered knuckles, and Jane might not have meant it when she promised something similar, long ago, but Elena does. She always will. 

_ interlude iii. on the passage of time _

This is a fairytale, so this is the part where we tell you that “many years pass.” And it’s true. Many years do pass. Broken hearts start to mend. Destinies are fulfilled. Existing love grows like a rosebush, old loves are put aside but never quite forgotten. Mistakes are made. 

Fallen angels bring criminals to justice. Active Angels topple kingdoms and bring countries to their knees.

_ part iii. internationally wanted criminals _

When she was a little girl, Elena dreamed about what her life would be like when she would be allowed to return to her kingdom as their princess. When her brother was deposed and she was brought to Angelwood, she dreamed about life with Sabina and Jane as Angels, spying on the elite at fancy parties and slipping poisons into glasses of champagne. As an Angel, once the novelty of it has worn off, all Elena dreams about is blood. 

She dreams rivers of blood, oceans of red, blood pouring down like rain. She dreams that she and Sabina are standing in a torrent of blood, only protected from it by a bubble of true love. 

Elena would assume she was going crazy if Sabina didn’t have the same dreams. 

“It could just mean we’re going crazy at the same time,” Sabina muses. She hasn’t been sleeping well lately, and there are huge bags under her eyes. Elena reaches for her, holds her tighter, presses a kiss to her forehead. It’s too soft, too delicate, if the other Angels could see they’d be ripped to shreds. But they’re only twenty-two and they both have body counts in the double digits; they’ve seen far too much in their short lives. Elena thinks they deserve a little softness. 

“There’s no one else I’d rather go crazy with,” she says.

Every day, she starts to understand a little bit more why Jane left. At the same time, she’s more grateful every day that she stayed, for Sabina’s sake. There are Angels in the field who work alone, but Elena shudders to think of Sabina being one of them. Sabina needs her just as much as she needs to be needed; Sabina’s the better Angel of the two of them, but Elena’s the one who holds her close at the end of the day, holds her together.

She thinks of leaving, sometimes, just packing up and sweeping Sabina off of her feet and taking her somewhere safer. Taking her to Jane. Then she looks down at her blood drenched hands, which remain dripping with red no matter how many times she washes them, and knows that it’s too late for that now. 

*

“This isn't healthy,” Bosley tells Jane one day.

She’s hovering in the doorway of Jane’s office, looking at her furthest wall with disdain. Jane keeps her second cork-board back there, the one she uses to track Elena and Sabina on their escapades across the globe. It’s covered in pictures and maps, diagrams and shreds of fabric. She’s adding to it as they speak. 

“It’s no big deal,” Jane lies. “It’s just a hobby.” Bosley shoots her a long look. They’ve never actually talked about Jane’s history with the pair, but Bosley is a Fallen Angel too. She’s too smart not to understand. 

“It’s not healthy,” Bosley repeats. “For your mental health or your career. These girls are holding you back, Jane.” Jane knows, intellectually, that Bosely’s completely right. She knows that Sabina and Elena aren’t even technically within her jurisdiction, that Fallen Angels don’t track down Active Angels. But knowing doesn’t change the way she feels, the possessive pull in her gut that howls at her to keep tabs on them, just to know if they’re safe. 

“I’m fine,” she tells Bosley. 

She stays late that night, rewatching footage from their latest hit. It’s nothing she hasn’t seen before, gritty security cam footage of two girls only she could recognize as Sabina and Elena, crouched in the rafters of a wearhouse, waiting for the gang to arrive so they can shoot them all dead. They look bored with it, and the takedown is perfunctory, like they’re filling out paperwork instead of carrying out a shadow organization’s dark agenda. 

On the screen, once they’ve finished, they fall into each other’s arms, holding each other tight. Alone in the office, Jane lets herself gently touch the screen, the places where they’re pressed so close together it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. 

“What are you still doing here?” A voice says. It takes all of Jane’s training not to jump, and she curses herself for getting distracted enough to miss the sound of approaching footsteps. She turns in her chair to see Bosley with her arms crossed across her chest. She’s not really cross, Jane knows, just doing her best in her role as mother-figure.

“I could ask you the same, Bos,” Jane says, smiling. She logs out of her computer and turns it off, standing up to walk with Bosley to the elevator. 

“That’s classified,” Bosley replies, not quite joking. “I assume it’s your girls that are keeping you up so late?” 

“Yup,” Jane admits. Bosley smiles and pats her shoulder. 

“I understand,” she says. “But…” There is a rare look of hesitation on her face. “Jane?”

“Yes?”

“Never let them get in your head.” Jane’s heard this advice time and time again. She knows Bosley is just trying to look out for her. She also knows that it’s too late. 

“Of course not,” she agrees. The door of the elevator opens into the garage. “Goodnight Bosley.” 

*

Halfway across the world, Sabina stretches out on the couch, laying her head on Elena’s lap. They’re in the middle of a tiny lull between jobs, and they’ve been taking full advantage of it; they haven’t left their hotel room for days. 

“I’m researching!” Elena protests, but she places her computer on her other leg. She threads one hand in Sabina’s hair, the other hand still typing away. A few comfortable minutes pass before Sabina reaches up and grabs Elena’s hand, pressing it to her mouth. “What’s on your mind, baby?” Sabina bites lightly at Elena’s knuckle, looking up into her eyes. 

“I miss Jane,” she admits. Elena smiles at her sadly. 

“Me too, my darling,” Elena says, running her hands through Sabina’s hair. They sit together in silence for a few moments, and then Sabina wiggles to get a better look at Elena’s screen. Elena’s been doing her best to research the men Angelwood has assigned her to deal with. None of their missions are exactly “normal,” but there’s something off about this one in particular that has them both antsy. 

“I still don’t like that you have to meet them alone,” Sabina says, and it comes out as a growl. She sits up and resituates herself on top of Elena, knees on either side of Elena’s hips. She ducks down to suck a hickey on Elena’s neck, not letting up until she’s sure she’ll leave a mark. “I don’t like letting you out of my sight for a shower, let alone a high stakes deal like this.” Elena smiles up at her partner. 

“I don’t love it either,” she admits. “But it’ll be quick, yeah? We’re just exchanging stuff, he won’t even touch me.”

“He better not,” Sabina growls, bristling at the thought. Elena leans up for a kiss. Sabina obliges, but she’s too preoccupied for the kiss to be any good. 

“You’re really worked up about this, huh?” 

“You’re mine,” Sabina says, the words familiar in her mouth. The watches the way the words make Elena light up and resolves to do it again. “No one touches what’s mine.” 

“I’ll be okay,” Elena says, but the slight hint of uncertainty in her voice sends Sabina over the edge. 

“Let me go,” Sabina blurts. 

“But our orders--”

“Fuck the orders,” Sabina says. It’s the first time they’ve even talked about this kind of defiance, but she’d rather burn Angelwood to ashes then let them put Elena in danger like this. Elena takes such good care of her, she can step up and be brave for Elena. 

“Okay,” Elena says, finally. “You can go. And I’ll be waiting for you right here.” Sabina’s hands tighten on Elena’s shoulders and she smiles, her possessive fervor dropping in favor of something softer and more lovesick. 

“Good.” She squeaks as Elena stands up, wrapping her arms around Elena’s neck and her legs around her waist. Elena tosses her onto the bed, and Sabina giggles as Elena drops down on top of her and starts to nip at her throat. 

“I’m gonna mark you all up,” Elena mutters into her skin. “I want that fucker you’re meeting with to know that you’re  _ taken _ .”

“Fuck,” Sabina moans, and for the next few hours she doesn’t worry about Jane or the deal or anything besides Elena. 

_ interlude iv. on the recent history of elena’s kingdom _

This is a fairytale, and we must not forget that Elena is a princess. And not just metaphorically. 

When she was a girl, if you’ll remember, her older half-brother was deposed. Elena had always assumed this meant he had been killed. Elena was wrong. Instead, her half-brother had been hiding, stewing in his own rage and biding his time. He forged a few key alliances as he waited in the shadows for his sister to grow up.

Then, when it was time, he pounced. 

_ part iv. ??? _

“Are you insane?” Bosley shouts at her over the phone. Jane winces, glancing back over her shoulder to see Elena sitting cross legged in one of her dining room chairs, staring blankly into a cup of hot tea. 

“Maybe,” Jane says.

“How do you know this isn’t actually an elaborate trap?” Bosley demands.

“It isn’t,” Jane insists. “They would never do that to me.” 

“They’re Angels, they can’t be trusted--”

“Bosley,” Jane finds herself pleading desperately. “She says she came to me because the Angels betrayed them.” Behind her, Elena sniffles. “They were working  _ with  _ Prince Alexander.” Another sniffle. 

“It could still be a trap,” Bosley says. “You were never an Angel, Jane, you don’t know how they work. You think you know these girls, but you don’t.” 

“Bos.” Jane’s voice is surprisingly firm. “I’d trust Sabina and Elena with my life. Please. Please let me help them.” There’s no response, so she keeps pushing. “Think about it this way, Bos. The kingdom of Calisto has been flourishing, hasn’t it? If we don’t help Sabina, Elena is gonna have to give in to his demands. Calisto will fall, and Elena’s psychopath of a brother will take over.” 

“I don’t--”

“Bosley.” Jane’s close to tears. “Bosley, I love them.” Bosley sighs, long and weary. 

“I loved an Angel, once,” Bosley says quietly. “Okay. We’ll save your girl. But then they come to work for us. For at least three years.” 

Jane turns to look at Elena one more time. Elena looks as cracked open and vulnerable as Jane feels. 

“Deal,” Jane says. 

*

Elena’s never been more scared in her life, but for the few moments every now and then when she convinces herself that Sabina’s going to be okay, she finds that she kind of likes working as a Special Agent. She likes the offices, the fancy tech, the unfettered access they give her to virtual every computer system on Earth. She likes Bosley, Jane’s boss, who still doesn’t trust her but would probably kill for her if Jane asked her to. 

She likes being with Jane again. 

It’s not as easy as it was at Angelwood, when they were just kids. There is a gulf of years and experience between them, not to mention that Jane’s actually a good person now, while Elena is a monster. But Jane’s as steady and competent as ever, and she appears to have missed Elena as much as Elena missed her. She spends all of her breaks and most days after work trying to cajole Elena to eat and talk. Elena can’t help but like it. 

What she doesn’t like is that it’s been a week and a half since she’s last seen Sabina. Sabina is her partner in crime, her partner in life, her everything. When she closes her eyes at night, all she can think of is Sabina, somewhere out there in her brother’s clutches, alone and afraid and maybe even hurt. Waiting for Elena to rescue her. 

Sabina’s the only one who has ever seen her have a panic attack before, which is why it nearly sends her spiraling into another one when she sees that it’s Jane kneeling next to her, leading her through her breathing exercises. They’re on the floor in the bathroom at the offices, which is embarrassing. Elena scrubs at her eyes. 

“I’m sorry,” she says. Her emotions are only an inconvenience. 

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Jane says firmly. “I’m worried about her too, Laney.” Elena decides to let the old nickname slide. 

“What if we can’t find her?” Elena lets herself ask in a whisper.

“Elena,” Jane says, so firmly that Elena’s breath hitches. “Honey. Do you really think Sabina would allow that?” Elena huffs out a laugh. 

“No,” she says. “Not my Sabina.” 

“We’ll find her,” Jane says. Elena should have stopped trusting Jane a long time ago, but Jane has this way of saying things that just makes her want so badly for them to be true. “I promise you, Elena, we’ll find her. And then we’ll go in with guns blazing.”

*

When the shooting starts, Sabina smiles for the first time in two weeks. She’s alone again in the basement, but for the first time she doesn’t feel the sting of the shackles or the pain in her leg. 

It has to be her Elena. It has to be.

“Elena!” She screams. “Elena, I’m here!” She screams until her throat is raw and then finally—finally!—Elena comes rushing down the stairs, nearly tripping over herself in an effort to get to Sabina. Sabina is tired and starving and (now that it’s safe to admit it to herself) terrified, but the minute Elena throws her arms around her neck it all falls away. 

She’s been actively afraid of seeing Elena, because Elena’s presence would mean she’d decided to give in to her psychopath of a brother, to trade Sabina’s freedom for a shot at taking back their kingdom. Now, all she’s afraid of is being separated from Elena again. Being in Elena’s arms again feels like coming home, and she can’t help but start to cry. 

“Sabina,” Elena murmurs in her ear. “Sabina, Sabina. I was so worried. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” 

“Elena,” she chokes, and then Elena is cupping her face and kissing her like she’s trying to take the air from her lungs. She reaches forward on instinct and is caught by the cuffs around her wrists. “Fuck, babe, the cuffs.” Elena pulls out a ring of keys with a shaking hand.

“I don’t know which one it is,” she explains, sounding a little frantic. 

“Shh, baby, take your time,” Sabina whispers. “I’m right here, love.” Elena finally finds the right key and undoes the lock and then Sabina’s hands are free and she reaches up to grip onto Elena like she’ll never let go. 

“Let’s get you out of here,” Elena says. She gets up, pulling Sabina with her, and it isn’t until too late that Sabina remembers her broken leg. She squawks in pain, and they both pitch backwards. Sabina’s sure they’re both going to fall to the ground until a warm pair of arms catches them, steadying them. 

“Don’t worry,” Special Agent Jane Kano says, smiling kind of shyly. “I’ve got you.”

_ interlude v. on healing  _

This is a fairytale, but there’s no magic in this story, no spell to mend broken things. Healing, in this fairytale, takes time. And there is so much to heal. 

Sabina’s leg. Sabina and Elena’s minds. Sabina and Elena and Jane’s relationship. 

Sometimes the thought of all of the healing left to do makes each of our Fallen Angels consider running away and starting a new story. A new fairytale. Then they roll over in bed to see the others, and they decide to stay. At least for a little while longer.

_ epilogue.  _

It’s been exactly three years since Sabina’s first day at the Townsend Agency, which makes it the last day she or Elena are contractually obligated to be there. Jane spends the day biting her fingernails and waiting for everything to go to shit. 

It’s been nearly three years since Sabina and Elena forgave her, two and a half years since she kissed them for the first time since she left, two years since they all moved in together. They’ve shared secrets and spit, held each other through nightmares and orgasms. They’ve worked through their insecurities together, from Jane’s fear that Sabina and Elena love each other more than they love her to Sabina and Elena’s fear that they’re not good enough for her. They’ve been really happy; happier than they’ve ever been before. 

But they haven’t been able to eliminate the worry in Jane’s mind that they’ll stay once they don’t have to. It doesn’t help that they’ve been acting strange and secretive lately. It doesn’t help that when Jane looks up from her work at the end of the day Bosley tells her that Elena and Sabina have already left. Well, Bosley uses the words “gone home,” but Jane doesn’t want to jinx it. 

She makes her way back to their apartment feeling stupidly nervous. She checks all of the other rooms, until their bedroom is the only place left to check. She opens the door. 

Sabina and Elena are waiting for her in their bedroom with a cupcake and a present. 

“Surprise!” They shout in unison. Jane smiles at them, feeling younger than ever and stupidly in love. 

“What’s this all about?” 

“We wanted you to know that we’re not going anywhere,” Sabina says, sticking her finger into the cupcake and licking off the frosting. Jane would scold her if she wasn’t so overcome with emotions. 

“And we wanted to make our claim official,” Elena says. Jane takes the present with shaky hands. She doesn’t even have to open it to know that there’s a necklace in there with two charms hanging from the front. One for each of her true loves. 

_ And they lived happily ever after. _


End file.
